There are two general types of ice making machines known in the prior art. The first and possibly the most familiar of these machines involves placing water into ice forming chambers or molds and subjecting the molds to the action of a refrigerant or a refrigeration system until the water is frozen into ice in cube or other suitable form. While machines of this general type produce high quality ice, they are by their very nature, relatively inefficient. This inefficiency is a result of the poor heat transfer characteristics of the ice itself, which necessitates significant refrigeration efforts in order to freeze a relatively thick piece of ice by direct heat transfer alone.
The second principal type of ice making machines known in the prior art is one in which ice is scraped from a freezine surface to provide ice in slush form which is subsequently compressed or compacted. A machine of this general type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,034,311, issued May 15, 1962, to M. L. Nelson. While a machine of this type in which slush ice is forced through a plurality of openings in order to compress or compact the ice and remove water therefrom is much more efficient than conventional ice cube making equipment discussed above, such latter type of equipment has heretofore been known to produce ice which is inferior in quality to that produced on cube-type ice making equipment. In the art of manufacturing cubes or chunks of ice of various shapes, a definite distinction is made in the art between cube ice, such as that produced on the conventional machines first discussed above, and flake ice formed under pressure, since the former is hard and clear and regular in nature, while flake ice is produced in the form of irregular ice chunks which are not has hard or as clear as the ice produced on cube-type equipment.
The present invention is directed toward a new and improved flake-type ice making machine which overcomes a number of the deficiencies of similar type machines known in the prior art, and as such, the present invention is intended to produce a very high quality relatively uniform size particles of ice, as compared to the irregular low quality ice produced by prior art equipment. This is achieved in the present invention through the provision of a plurality of ice discharge openings which are formed in an ice discharge member located at the upper end of the ice forming chamber, with the openings being arranged in an overlying relationship with respect to the space between the root diameter of the auger and the inner diameter of the associated ice chamber wall. The size of the ice discharge openings are correlated with respect to the ice forming chamber such that as the generally cylindrically-shaped ice body produced by the ice auger is moved upwardly into engagement with the underside of the ice discharge member so that portions of the cylindrical body are forced upwardly through the ice discharge openings, water flow passages are provided between the inner peripheral wall of the discharge openings and the outer surface of the portions of ice moving through the openings. These passages permit water which is forced out of the ice body due to the compacting or ice extruding action of the cylindrical body of ice being pushed through the openings to flow back toward the ice chamber, resulting in a significantly higher quality ice. The ice rods which are produced as the cylindrical ice body is formed upwardly toward the ice discharge opening are adapted to engage a generally inwardly and upwardly inclined breaker ramp which causes the rods to break into relatively uniform length ice particles or pellets which are subsequently transferred via a suitable ice passage to an ice storage area or transport facility, as will hereinafter be described in detail.